📣 OHIO
When “student-led” prayer isn’t really student-led.
After the Lakota East/West game, a large on-field prayer circle was publicly celebrated on Facebook — and when a community member questioned it, a coach jumped in to defend his own participation.
Lakota Local Schools
Lakota West
Lakota East High School
WCPO 9
Enquirer – Cincinnati and Kentucky
Let’s be clear:
✅ Students have the right to pray, individually or voluntarily, at any time that doesn’t disrupt instruction or coerce others.
🚫 But school employees — coaches, teachers, or staff — may not lead, join, or encourage prayer with students while acting in their official capacity. That includes post-game “circles,” huddles, or moments when their authority is still in play.
When adults blur that line, it sends a clear message: if you don’t join in, you don’t belong. That’s not faith — that’s pressure.
Lakota students deserve a public-school environment that respects everyone’s beliefs, including those who choose not to pray. Public schools are for all of us — and neutrality is not hostility. It’s fairness.
💬 What do you think — do your local teams respect these boundaries, or are you seeing the same kinds of “after-game prayers” creeping in?
What about your coaches? See those comments??? 👀🤯
#PublicSchoolsNotPulpits #KeepItSecular #Lakota #ChurchAndState #SecularEducationAssociation
What people are saying:
- Secular Education Association: Secular Education AssociationFacebook UserFacebook User
- Facebook User: Secular Education Association don’t forget Respect Public Schools, Inc. with the most powerful message there is: the current interactive and always up to date LIfeWise map.
https://respectpublicschools.com now with active organizations in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Iowa, Indiana, Washington, North Carolina, Virginia and Michigan. It takes a village!
- Facebook User: Secular Education Association don’t forget Respect Public Schools, Inc. with the most powerful message there is: the current interactive and always up to date LIfeWise map.
- Facebook User: I’m not so sure that it’s illegal anymore? Not since 2022. SCOTUS ruled in favor of a coach leading prayer in WA after ball games.
https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/06/justices-side-with-high-school-football-coach-who-prayed-on-the-field-with-students/- Secular Education Association: Facebook User it absolutely is still illegal. But we understand the confusion. It’s by design.
The Court said Coach Kennedy’s prayer was “brief, quiet, personal” and protected because it was his own expression after the game, not part of his job, and not directing students. It did not approve employee-led or employee-joined student prayer.
The U.S. Department of Education’s post-Kennedy guidance is explicit: when acting in their official roles, teachers and coaches may not lead, join, or encourage student prayer. They can pray privately when off duty and not pressuring students.
- Secular Education Association: Facebook User it absolutely is still illegal. But we understand the confusion. It’s by design.
- Facebook User: Secular Education Association true. And yet, he “prayed quietly” on the field, right after the game, in public. Students joining him was/is coincidental, of course. Which feels like splitting hairs, while amounting to the same thing. This “student-led prayer” where the coaches just happen to join feels very similar to the WA case to me. But, maybe that’s just me. 🤷♀️
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